


Best You've Ever Had

by brit



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brit/pseuds/brit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is an actor who sometimes (most of the times) hates the life that comes with being an actor. He loves acting and he's really good at it but the paparazzi and the fans and the feeling that he's being constantly judged can be a lot for one guy. And it's nice to get away sometimes. When he sneaks out of a party that he apparently has to be at for whatever known reason and manages to get to a club without being seen he thinks that he'll just have some fun dancing and possibly getting shitfaced. Forget that he's Steve Rogers, A-list celebrity, for just a little while. Then he meets the most beautiful stranger. And they click. Then they do a little more than just click.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Being a movie star is sometimes hard. The paparazzi’s blinding cameras, the stupid parties, the lack of privacy, it can be a hassle. A hassle that Steve Rogers really hates but he loves acting so he deals with the life that comes along with it. The only thing that keeps him sane is Natasha, his best friend, who attends all the parties with him. Sure everyone assumes they’re dating, but they don’t mind. In fact, it's encouraged that the pap's think they're dating. It makes it easier to answer their stupid questions. It makes it hard for either of them to _actually_ date though. And that’s lonely. 

Ever since he moved to New York it seems like he's going to a lot more parties than usual. Tonight's no different. He received an invitation a week ago and told Natasha about it. If she hadn't reminded him this morning, he would have slept through it. Steve's not even sure what it's for. Natasha says that it has something to do with animals, maybe. It honestly doesn't even matter though. Steve wants to get his picture taken with Natasha and then leave as soon as possible. He's not in the mood for mingling tonight. If this party was an actual party with dancing and booze then he'd be fine with that. But instead this party is more of a gala. They always are. It's filled with champagne and mini quiches, has a string quartet softly playing in the background, and women in impossibly intricate hair dos and dresses worth more than socially acceptable and men in suits who think they're better than everyone else in the room. 

Steve loves living in New York, he really does, but at least the parties he went to in LA were actually parties. All Steve wants to do tonight is get drunk and possibly make an ass out of himself. But until they can sneak out, they play the role of perfect Hollywood couple. They stop and pose for pictures and even answer a few questions about Steve's upcoming projects and if they're ever getting married (because that's apparently the most important thing in the entire world). Steven answers the question about the projects to the best of his ability and Natasha handles the marriage question. It's the system that they've been living under for about a year now. Steve jokes with the reporters that he can't possibly give away too much. Natasha looks at Steve lovingly and laughs saying a bullshit line like "maybe if he's lucky." They all laugh and then Steve and Nat move on to the next reporter. Steve understands that it's their job and he respects that aspect only, but he can't see how whether or not Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov are getting married is of the utmost importance. Aren't they there for a charity event? Shouldn't they be asked questions about that? He's glad they aren't of course because neither he nor Natasha know what the event is really for, but still. 

"Okay," Nat says when they get into the building, "I actually have a date tonight. I told him I'd be done with this by nine. Can we manage that?" She looks around for a waiter with a tray of champagne. One walks over and she takes two. Steve takes one and they both take the champagne in one gulp. 

"Nat," Steve says, placing their empty flutes on another tray and grabbing two more, "we could leave right now. You know I hate these kinds of things." They both look around. This is the same event they went to last week and the week before and so on and so. Natasha spots and Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, and Tony Stark, former CEO of Stark Industries and Pepper's boyfriend. Natasha waves them over. Pepper tugs Tony away from a plate of mini quiches.

"We should at least attempt to mingle," she whispers to Steve as Pepper and Tony approach them. Natasha and Pepper kiss each other on the cheek. Tony and Steve shake hands. They switch partners, ending the traditional greeting. They talk for a little. Mostly small talk. Pepper loves Natasha's dress. Natasha loves Pepper's earrings. Tony asks Steve how he like living in New York compared to Los Angeles. Steve asks Tony about Stark Towers, Tony's newest project that almost everyone can't shut up about. Pepper asks Steve about his new apartment. Everyone always keeps saying his new apartment and asking questions about him living in New York as if he just moved yesterday. He's lived in New York for a little over a year now, but he doesn't dare bring that fact up. That would only make the interactions last longer. So instead he smiles and just says how he loves it, how it's just the right size for a bachelor, it's proximity to JFK for when he's needed in LA, and how if Pepper or Tony knows any interior designers they should let Steve know because he's currently living in a practically all white apartment and it could use a little color.

When they're all small talked out with each other, they go their separate ways. Natasha and Steve make the rounds. Steve talks to people that he doesn't know at all but they apparently know him. Natasha saves him on a few occasions when he gets stuck with a question about their relationship. For an actor he's a pretty shitty liar. Good thing Natasha's a better actor than Steve. 

They stay for almost an hour. They somehow manage to sneak out though. Steve's about to go home and just watch some television when he realizes while he doesn't want to be surrounded by people that claim to be his best friend, he also doesn't want to be alone. He goes home, but only to change into something other than a tuxedo. He grabs a grey t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He doesn't know where he wants to go so he opts out of taking a taxi and just walks.

Somehow he ends up at a club without anyone seeing him. Since he just got done filming, he has a beard, which helps him blend in. He quickly orders a beer and finishes it. He then goes out to the dance floor. He's not a good dancer but that doesn't stop him. He tries not to stay in one spot. It's easier for people to recognize him that way. But then someone starts to dance on him. And for whatever reason, he doesn't move away. Instead, he starts dancing with this stranger and this person is so goddamn perfect. He looks like heaven by the way he's dancing. He has moves that make Steve want to take him home right then and there. It’s dark so of course the stranger doesn’t see that it’s Steve Rogers, famous movie star. They dance for awhile and one thing leads to another and soon the stranger is taking Steve past the bar and to a storage room in the back of the club. If Steve weren’t so busy, he’d ask how they were allowed back there. But instead, Steve focuses on the strangers tongue and the way he tastes of cinnamon. Steve hopes he tastes just as goddamn good.

When they have to separate so Steve can get his shirt off, the stranger finally sees who it is he’s about to hook up with. He looks up at Steve and his mouth hangs open a little. Steve smiles and starts to kiss his neck. 

“You’re…You’re…” the guy stutters. Steve bites the guy’s collar and sucks a little to get a moan out of him. Steve then looks up and shakes his head. 

“Let’s pretend I’m not,” he whispers as takes his shirt off. The guy pushes him onto the dingy little couch that is in the corner of the room. He straddles Steve and kisses his neck and down his chest. Steve’s head lulls back and he can’t remember the last time he had this happen that wasn’t scripted. The stranger gets onto the floor and unbuckles Steve’s pants. Steve looks down to see him looking up at him through his eyelashes.

“What’s your name?” Steve asks, his voice thick. Something about not knowing the name of the guy who he’s about to get a blow job from seems wrong.

“Whatever you wanna call me,” the stranger says and it’s the hottest thing Steve’s ever heard and it really shouldn’t have been. He kisses Steve’s thighs and palms at his dick. Steve lets out a low hiss. His hand goes to his hair and he moans at the light tug. Steve’s hips buck up and the guy takes that as his cue to get Steve out of his boxers. He makes Steve wait a little longer, teasing him with slow kisses on the inner thigh, before he takes him into his mouth. His lips are the best thing to ever happen to Steve. Steve’s eyes close as the stranger’s mouth works around him. The way he moves around Steve, Steve can't remember the last time someone made him moan this way. It doesn’t take long before Steve’s at the edge. Steve tugs on his hair again, trying to let him know but he keeps going.

“Hey…” he’s nearly breathless and he still doesn’t know his name. The guy keeps going. His tongue working its way along Steve's cock, stopping at the head, paying special attention there. Steve's seeing stars. “Holy shit…seriously…I’m about…” and then it’s too late. It’s probably the best orgasm he’s ever had. He’s still breathless as the guy swallows then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He smiles up at Steve like he's never been more proud of himself for giving someone an orgasm. 

“That was fucking amazing,” Steve manages to get out. The guy gets up and sits on the couch next to Steve.

“My pleasure, seriously.” He hands Steve his shirt. Steve doesn’t put it on right away though. He’s still in bliss. “I just blew Steve Fucking Rogers. No one’s going to believe me.” Steve winces at that. He completely forgot about that. “Wait, shit, unless I can’t tell people. Are you one of those celebrities? I mean, I’ve seen you with Natasha Romanov a few times. I mean I can keep it a secret, you know, if you want.” Steve can tell just by the way this guy says that making him keep it to himself, swearing him to secrecy, would be a shitty thing to do. 

“Well, you did say no one was going to believe you,” Steve teases him. They both laugh. Steve goes to put his shirt back on but he’s stopped.

“Wait, let me just soak it all in.” He stares at Steve like he might just jump him at any moment. Steve wouldn't mind that actually.  

“Tell me your name, and then maybe I’ll let you ‘soak it all in’.” He still feels weird about not knowing.

“James. But people usually just call me Bucky.” Steve’s eyebrow quirks up. “My middle name is Buchanan. My parents apparently really loved the 15th president. Go figure." 

“Bucky. It’s cute,” Steve laughs. Bucky punches him in the shoulder.

“Don’t be a dick.” Steve knocks into him. They look at each other and Steve leans in a little, hoping that he’ll get to kiss Bucky again. But Bucky’s hesitant.

“Did I overstay my welcome?” Steve asks, a little disappointed.

“No, God no. I’m just still a little in shock. Not every day you get to kiss a celebrity. A celebrity that you have a poster of on your wall.” Bucky admits with a slight blush in his cheeks. Steve smiles. 

“You have a poster of me? Which one?” Steve’s amused by this. 

“Captain America.” It's always Captain America that gets people. 

“It’s the uniform, isn’t it?” Bucky nods then puts his face into his hands and groans, embarrassed. Steve puts his arm around Bucky’s shoulder. “You know," Steve says, thinking it's worth a shot, "they let me keep the hat.” Bucky looks up at Steve, mouth twisted into a devilish smile.

“Is that your way of asking me to come home with you?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

* * *

"Holy fuck," Bucky breathes out. They're both sprawled out on Steve's bed. Bucky rolls onto his stomach and leans up on his elbows, looking down at Steve. Steve looks up at Bucky, and he can't stop the smile that spreads across his face. Bucky is the most beautiful person Steve's ever had the pleasure of meeting. "That was amazing."

"I'm pretty sure that was the best sex I've ever had," Steve laughs. Bucky looks at Steve, triumphant. He leans down and kisses Steve. Steve wraps his arm around Bucky's waist and pulls him closer. He lets him go and Bucky rolls onto his back.

"I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming." Steve pinches his side. Bucky lets out a yelp.

"Nope, not a dream." 

"Better not be." Bucky turns on his side to face Steve. Steve follows. 

"Hey, how'd you get to that storage room so easily?" It's been bothering Steve. You can't usually walk to a club's storage room just because you were about to hook up with someone. Or at least he didn't think you could.

"I know the owner and I used to work there. They don't mind." 

"Used to work there? Not anymore?" He wants to know him. Steve wants to get to know Bucky. He isn't just a random hook up. Steve hopes he's not at least. Hopefully he doesn't scare him away with the questions though. Bucky seems okay with it. 

"Nope. I'm past that point in my life." Bucky inches a little closer to Steve. Their foreheads rest on each other. Steve's hand runs down Bucky's side. Not to start anything, but just to have an excuse to touch him. Bucky seems to enjoy it. 

"And what point in your life are you at now?" Bucky pulls away a little. Steve drops his hands and gives Bucky his space. Bucky rolls onto his back. He looks up at the ceiling through the darkness. He really seems like he's thinking.

Then he just laughs to himself and say, "Oh you know, sleeping with celebrities. I'm really moving up in the world." Steve sighs and rolls onto his back as well. 

"Ah yes, the epitome of the good life." Bucky puts Steve's arm around him, curling into his side. He rests his head on Steve's chest and closes his eyes.

"I'll say." Steve kisses the top of Bucky's head and closes his eyes as well.

* * *

The next morning Steve wakes up at 6:30. He's usually up by 5:30 so he's thrown a little by how late it is. He doesn't have plans, but he doesn't like getting a late start. He rubs his eyes and rolls on his side. Bucky's not there. He shouldn’t be disappointed, so it was just a one night stand, no big deal, but he can’t help but be a little disappointed. He lays in his bed for a few seconds before he pushes himself up. He has to get on with his day. He's already behind in his daily schedule. He’s about to get into the shower when he hears something coming from the kitchen. He grabs a pair of pajama pants and walks out to the kitchen. It's probably just Natasha. She always breaks into his apartment to steal his breakfast foods. It's technically not breaking in since he gave her a key, but it is still stealing. He walks out expecting to find a red head digging through his pantry but instead finds Bucky sitting at the breakfast bar, reading the newspaper. Bucky looks up from the paper.

“Morning,” he says, sipping a cup of coffee from Starbucks. “You sleep like a fucking rock, you know that?” He holds up a cup for Steve, who’s kind of in shock. While he was disappointed in thinking Bucky had left, he was more shocked to find him still in his apartment. 

"Sorry. I usually set an alarm that wakes up the entire building. Without it, I could sleep through the apocalypse." He takes a sip of the coffee and winces. Too strong.

"I was about to have to leave. I'm glad you woke up." Bucky takes the final sip of his coffee. He's about to get up to throw it out but Steve takes it and tosses it. 

“I thought you had left already.” Steve says, a little sheepishly. He turns back around to Bucky's smile. 

“Well technically I did. Hence the coffee. I came back though.” Bucky’s smile is beautiful. It reaches his eyes in the most perfect of ways. Steve could look at that smile for the rest of his life

“I'm glad you did.” Steve takes his coffee and walks over to his fridge. He gets creamer out and pours about half a bottle into the coffee. Not big on black coffee. Bucky seems to take notice. 

“Okay,” Bucky says, getting his jacket and putting it on, “well I have to get to work. Unlike some people, I have a real career.” He flashes a perfect smile at Steve. Steve walks back over to the counter and puts his coffee down for a second. 

“If I asked you for your number…” He was so bad at things like this. He needed a script. 

“I already put it in your phone. It’s under ‘Best I Ever Had’. I work until 5, call me if you get the chance.” Bucky leans up on the counter and kisses Steve goodbye. Once he’s gone Steve sits at his counter drinking his coffee, waiting to wake up from the best dream he’s ever had, but instead he stays awake. Apparently, this is real and he couldn’t be happier.

 


	2. Chapter 2

After Bucky leaves Steve finishes his coffee then gets in the shower. He’s planning on reading some of the scripts that Sam, his agent, sent over a few days ago that he hadn’t had the time to get to but he should have known that that wasn't going to happen. Not with Natasha. As he sits down on the couch, Natasha comes strolling into his apartment, demanding breakfast. 

“Steve. I know you have more than Frosted Flakes and strawberry PopTarts. Come on man. I’m hungry.” She says as she rummages through his pantry. She holds up a box of empty Eggo waffles that Steve had forgotten to throw away.

“I’m busy. Make your own breakfast.” Steve says, trying to stay concentrated on the script. So far he’s read the title. Natasha tiptoes over to the couch and hangs her arms around Steve’s neck. She takes the script out of his hand and flips through it without reading a single word of it.

“It looks boring. You know what’s not boring? Making me eggs.” Steve knows he’s not winning this battle. He sighs and gets off the couch and begins making bacon and eggs. He knew he would regret giving her a key. 

Natasha is sitting at his breakfast bar now, eating the breakfast she forced him into making her. Steve is standing on the other side of the bar, eating his own breakfast. He never sits when he’s eating breakfast because he usually only has time for a PopTart and a coffee then he’s running out. He only keeps his kitchen fully stocked for Natasha and Sam whenever he comes over. 

She tries to steal a bite of his hash browns. He swats her hand away but she threatens to stab him with her fork. He backs off and she takes the hash browns with a triumphant smile. 

“So,” she says, mouth full of Steve’s hash brown, “what’d you do after you left the party last night?” She picks up her glass of orange juice and takes a big gulp. Steve takes a sip of his second cup of coffee and shrugs.

“Not much. Got a lot sleep.” He isn’t lying. He just isn’t giving her all the details. Bucky did let him sleep in a lot later than he usually sleeps. He didn’t get to set his alarm. Not with Bucky riding him all night. Steve smiles to himself. Natasha’s eyebrow quirks up. He should have known she would notice that. She always notices shit like that. He tries to furrow his brow to erase his frown, but it’s too late. She already saw it. 

“You’re not telling me everything.” She leans across the bar and pokes his chest with her sharp nailed finger. He rubs his puncture wound and sputters instead of laying. “Hey, I get it. It’s your business. Or I’ll just read it in the tabloids tomorrow. Hell, maybe it’s in them today.” He hates the tabloids. They never have the truth. It’s all sketchy sources spewing the most ridiculous story they can spin to get some quick cash. And besides, he’s 95% sure that he got to the club and back to his apartment without anyone noticing him. If they had noticed him, they didn’t make a big deal about it. But it’s always in the back of his mind that something could have happened. He keeps his best poker face on though and pretends he doesn’t care either way. 

“Really Natasha, I came home and went to bed.” Again, not a lie, technically. Well there was a few minutes spent in the elevator, and they got caught up in the living room for a little bit, but they mostly were in the bedroom. He can’t hide his smile. Damn his betraying face. Natasha catches on.

“Holy shit!” She jumps off her stool and rushes over to Steve. “Holy fuck!” She says, slapping Steve’s arm. “Holy shit. You got laid! Steve Rogers you saucy minx! Who are they? Do I know them? Did _you_ even know them? Holy shit this is exciting. You haven’t gotten laid in, like, months!” Natasha is like a kid on christmas. And she isn’t even the one who fucked someone. But there isn’t really a point in lying about it. 

“You don’t know them.” He says, taking her hands into his to stop her from hitting him. He drops her hands and warns her about hitting him again. 

“Did you?”

“I do now,” Steve says coyly. Natasha nearly pisses herself laughing. Her friend Steve is far from the playboy most Hollywood pretty boys are. The last real relationship Steve had, Peggy Carter, was over a year ago. He and Peggy were nearly perfect for each other. It was a right Hollywood love story. They met on the set of Captain America and they just clicked. Everyone thought they would get married, have 3.5 kids, live in a multimillion dollar house on the hills, and live happily ever after. Then Steve had to go film in Korea for three months and Peggy had to do a vigorous round of press touring around Europe for six months. Skype calls were dropped, texts were accidentally forgotten. Eventually a picture of Peggy having a lunch date with an old friend surfaced. When Steve saw how happy she was with him, he called her and they both agreed that they were just in different places in their lives. 

The break up took its toll on Steve. He decided to take a sabbatical from acting. Sam tried with all his might to get him to reconsider that choice but Steve was dead set on it. He moved to New York to be closer to where he grew up. He spent most of his time drawing. He even sold a few of his pieces to galleries in the city. 

Natasha visited him as often as she could. She tried to convince him to get back into acting because that was his true passion. Eventually, after about six months, Steve called Sam. Sam got him a role in an indie film and he was back. He stayed in New York though. He’s back in acting but he’s trying to not let it dictate his entire life. He didn’t want the press on his ass about Peggy or about dating in general. That’s when he Natasha came up with their fake relationship. 

“Well shit Rogers, look who became a slut over night. You bisexuals, man, I’ll tell ya. You guys sure are busy.” Natasha loves making jokes about Steve’s sexuality. And if it were anyone else, Steve would knock them out. But it’s Natasha, his oldest friend, who Steve knows is 100% supportive of him. She just loves jumping on any chance she has to get him worked up. Sometimes he thinks that she’s more invested in his love life than her own.  

“Shut up Natasha. Eat your eggs.” Steve looks down at his plate, holding back a smile. He gets up to get some more coffee. Nat walks back to her seat and takes a bite of eggs.

“I’m proud of you Steve,” she says, pushing her empty plate away. “Really, I am. Getting some ass all on your own.” Steve blushes and refuses to look up from his plate. “Was it any good?” 

“Unbelievably so.” Steve turns around and nearly melts at the thought of last night. Natasha props her elbows on the counter and rests her head in her hands. She wants the details. All the details. She also knows just how much Steve hates talking about his sex life. But she couldn’t care less about that. One way or another, she will know what happened last night. 

“Tell me. Tell me. Tell me! Steve! Tell me. Come on. Do it. Tell me.” Annoying him usually works. Sometimes it pisses him off though. Natasha has to be careful with it sometimes. One time, shortly after Steve came out as bisexual and the press was giving him hell, Natasha tried to joke with him about how the press was just jealous they couldn’t get as much ass as Steve could. Steve was at a rough point in his life and he was not in the mood for joking. He had the media down his throat, his girlfriend of the time broke up with him claiming that he was more likely to cheat on him, and then of course there was the idiots who tried to tell him that he was just confused or really just gay or basically just trying to tell him he didn’t know what the was feeling. Everything was going to shit really and the last thing he wanted was Natasha making jokes. She said that and he snapped. His face turned red and he told her to get out of his apartment. She had never seen him that mad and she hopes to never see him that angry again. But this, she’s pretty sure he’ll play along with this. 

She’s right of course. Steve bites his lip and she claps because she knows she’s got him. 

“Shut up, Natasha. I’m not telling you. I’m not saying a word about what happened between me and Bucky, at the club, in the taxi ride to my apartment, in the elevator, in the living room, or in my room. All of it will stay between me and him.” Natasha’s eyes are bugging out of her head.

“Holy fuck, Steven Grant Rogers. You really are a slut! A complete whore. I’ve never been so goddamn proud of you. A club? You picked up a guy at some cheesy club? I don’t think any moment will ever surpass this one. I think I’m in love with you.” She reaches across the counter and grabs Steve’s face, holding it in place. He rolls his eyes but she holds on.

“Get in line,” he mutters as he shakes her off of him. He picks up her empty plate and walks over to the sink. She can’t stop smiling. It should be weird that she’s this proud of him, but it’s not. 

“Can I sit on your couch? Or is it…dirty?” 

“Like that would stop you anyway. And, no it’s not…dirty. However, the area rug might be a little.” Natasha looks at the rug and nods her head in approval. Steve shakes his head and wonders how he ever got so lucky to get Natasha as a best friend. 

“You wanna watch a movie? I think Steele Magnolia’s is playing on Life Time.” For the rest of the morning, Natasha and Steve watch Steele Magnolia’s and talk about Natasha’s date. His name is Clint. He’s ex-military. They met at the gym. He tried to pick Nat up with cheesy pickup lines that Natasha’s pretty sure came out of a book. She rejected him at first. She has a hard time forming romantic relationships and when she does her partners usually back out when they find out she’s asexual. But Clint, he’s different. He asked her if it was alright he if he still talked to her and over time they formed a friendship. He’s really sweet and funny and nice enough that she eventually asked him out. He was confused at first, but she didn’t have to ask twice. They went to a laser tag place and apparently annihilated a bunch of eleven year olds who’s mothers had to not so nicely ask the alleged adults to leave. Then, like the adults they claim to be, they went to a bar. They got drunk and Clint tried to kiss her. She backed away a little and Clint stopped. He asked her if he did something wrong and then she told him that she wasn’t really into that kind of stuff. He looked a little confused at first then just shrugged, said ‘Alright’ and then asked if she wanted another round of beer. It was probably the best date she’s ever had.

“You look happy,” Steve says once the movie is over and the credits are rolling. He dare not speak during the movie. Natasha turns to face him, resting her head on the couch cushion. 

“I am.” And Steve can tell she means it. Natasha’s smiles, her real smiles, not the one she uses on the paparazzi, are something of a masterpiece.  

Steve’s phone buzzes on the coffee table. He picks it up thinking it’s going to be Sam asking him about the scripts, but the name that appears on the screen is “Best I Ever Had.” Natasha sees the name and smiles again. She starts slapping Steve’s arm. He has to get off the couch before she leaves a bruise. 

“Hello?” He walks into his room and closes the door. He knows that Natasha is sitting outside with her ear pressed to the door. 

“Steve?” He sits on his bed and sees his Captain America hat on the bedside table. His face flushes at the thought of what happened last night. 

“Speaking,” he whispers. He falls back on his bed and looks up at the ceiling.

“Why are you whispering?” Bucky asks, whispering as well, playing along. Steve smiles. In fact he can’t stop smiling.

“My friend is listening from the other side of the door,” he shouts towards the door.

“No I’m not!” Natasha screams. Bucky laughs. Natasha opens the door and crawls into the bed next to Steve. He doesn’t even care. She forces him to put the phone between the both of them so she can hear better. He dare not refuse.  

“I thought you were at work?” 

“I am. I get a lunch break and I thought I’d just call and say hi. So, um, hi.” Natasha hits his arm. She loves doing that when she’s excited. This is what you see in the movies. And Steve would know that. He’s literally in the movies. But here it is, happening to him, in real life. 

“Hi.” They’re silent for a minute. Natasha has to nudge Steve to get him to talk again. 

“So, you never told me what you do for a living.” Natasha rolls her eyes. Of all the things he could say at a point like this and Steve goes for that? He really sucks at this kind of thing. 

“Oh, I’m a teacher. High school teacher.” Natasha mouths ‘that’s hot’ and Steve pushes her away. She falls off the bed with a loud thud. She groans in pain. “What was that?” 

“Just my friend being an idiot. Don’t mind her. So, a high school teacher, huh? What do you teach?” 

“Twelfth grade honors English and drama.” 

“Those are great subjects.” Once again, Steve is out of his depths. He doesn’t have a script and a script would be exceptionally nice to have at times like these. 

“I always thought so. So hey, listen, I said you should call me at five, right?” Steve’s stomach falls. This was when Bucky said he was done. It was a one time deal. Steve had blown it with how awkward he was. Natasha is back on the bed. She sees the hat on the bedside table and picks it up. She looks at Steve who waves her off. She rolls her eyes and puts the hat down. But then she thinks about it and her mouth forms a perfect ‘O’ in surprise. She nearly squeals. Steve has to put his hand over her mouth. 

“Yeah. Is five not a good time?”

“Well I have a parent teacher meeting now because some kid thought telling me to ‘go fuck myself’ wouldn’t have any consequences. So now him, his mother, the principal and I need to talk about it because giving him detention isn’t enough anymore, apparently. I’m really sorry. I can call you when my meeting’s over though. It shouldn’t be more than an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I mean, if you’re not busy or anything.”

“No, I’m free tonight. You can call whenever you're done.”

“Okay great! Well, my lunch is almost over and the kids will be getting back in a few minutes. I’ll call you tonight, okay?” 

“Okay. Talk to you later. Bye, Buck.”

“Bye, Steve.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

Steve stays in with Natasha for the rest of the day. She eats most of his pantry, his fridge, and orders a pizza. He still doesn’t know where she puts all of it. He just watches in awe. She seldom offers him some of her food but when she does, he declines because he’s reading the scripts. Finally. After the movie and the phone call, Natasha actually allowed him to read his scripts. She even offered to help. Claims she’ll pick the best role of his life. While he highly doubts that’s true, he’s not in a position to decline her help. Her help is mostly her just making fun of the script’s title and then making up a story that would be better. Steve skims the scripts and listens to Natasha’s story about a young heroine (obviously played by her) who has the signature dumb blond partner (obviously played by Steve) and they go around the world assassinating people that they’ve been hired to kill because they work for the CIA or something like that but then one day she’s hired to kill Steve and unbeknown to her Steve’s been hired to kill her. They’ve been killing people together for years and have an odd friendship. Neither wants to kill the other. In the end they wind up killing their boss who turns out to be working for a terrorist cell the whole time and was planning on using whoever survived to kill the president. Or something along the lines of that. It’s in the works right now. Steve nods his head and ‘hmms’ every now and then. Natasha throws a napkin at Steve whenever she thinks he’s not paying attention. So he puts the script down to give her his full attention. She gives him a thankful smile then tells him that the story is over and that he should really get back to the scripts. Steve is going to kill her one of these days. Or she might kill him. He hasn’t decided yet. But he’d put money on her killing him. So would Natasha.  

Back to the scripts they both go. Natasha not so much, she’s kind of really busy trying to beat her high score on some game on her phone. Steve tries to concentrate on the readings. But there really isn’t anything popping out to him. He sighs and pushes the script that’s in his hand away from him.

“Wanna go for a walk?” Natasha, who still has half a pizza left, surprisingly agrees. It’s the beginning of November in New York so she grabs one of Steve’s hoodies since she was stupid and didn’t bring a coat with her this morning. She came over in a rush and she was too hungry to think about coats. Steve puts on another hoodie, his second favorite since Natasha somehow always manages to grab his favorite, and they head out. 

“So what’s up?” Natasha asks as she loops her arm with Steve’s. 

“I hate having to read scripts.” 

“It really is the worst. But what about my movie idea, huh? Pretty good, right?” 

“The best Nat. You should pitch it to that director friend of yours. Nick?”

“I’ll call him up when we get back.” Steve laughs as he slips his arm around her. It’s a lot colder than he expected. Natasha curls into his side as they walk down the street in silence. Sometimes, silence really is golden. 

They walk for about half an hour before the first paparazzi shows up. Natasha, knowing how much Steve loves the paparazzi’s inability to leave him alone, flips them off. Can’t get a good headliner with the middle finger. Sure, shitty tabloids and the internet can, but the better (if there really is such a thing) magazines wouldn’t print a picture with anyone flipping off the camera. Steve shakes his head but he doesn’t fully disapprove. They hail a cab to take them back to Steve’s apartment. 

* * *

“This one looks interesting,” Natasha points to one titled “Playing It Cool” with her piece of pizza. As soon as they got back she started eating her slightly cold pizza. Steve pointed out the microwave, but Natasha insisted that cold pizza was the best pizza. Steve knocks her hand away. He doesn’t want grease stains all over it. She waves the pizza around as she sticks her tongue out at him. He snatches the script and flips through it again. 

“Yeah, it doesn’t seem too bad. Little cheesy, but a definite candidate.”They look at a few more scripts, Natasha still not really helping so much as making Steve worry about her eating habits. They eventually decide that “Playing It Cool” is the one Steve should go after. He picks up his phone and texts Sam with the title of the movie. Sam calls him not even a minute later.

“Great choice. I knew that was the one you’d go with. I’ll make the call tomorrow, first thing in the morning. You’re gonna be great! I’ll call you with the details as soon as I know them.” And then Sam hangs up. His phone calls are almost always like that. Steve doesn’t mind. In fact that’s one of the main reasons Steve hired Sam as his agent. He’s quick, to the point, doesn’t put up with bull shit. 

Sam has been Steve’s agent for almost five years now. They didn’t meet in a normal way an actor meets their agent. They met while jogging. Steve passed Sam a few times as he made lap after lap around the path they were jogging on. Sam tried to pass Steve a few times, but it never worked. Sam eventually gave up and crashed under a tree. Steve had noticed how cute Sam was so he thought he’d go and introduce himself. They talked for a little bit before Natasha came by to pick Steve up for their usual Wednesday lunch dates. Sam gave Steve his card and told him to call him if he wanted an agent or a date. Steve ended up getting both. In the end they decided that their relationship should be actor/agent but more importantly friends. 

When Steve took his sabbatical, Sam tried his very best to get Steve to snap out of it. At first it was mostly because he’s Steve’s agent, but as Steve hit his three week mark, living in a basically empty apartment with a beard that made him look like a hermit, Sam removed the agent badge and stepped in to be Steve’s friend.Together, Sam and Natasha got Steve a little more on his feet. He was getting out of the house more often and even started drawing. Eventually Sam had to go back to LA because he did have other clients. Then six months into the sabbatical Sam got the best call he could have hoped for. Steve was ready to get back into the game. Sam got him a great lead role in an indie movie and Steve was back in business and so was Sam.

“Hey, if you get this role, what’ll that mean for you and the Best You’ve Ever Had?” Natasha asks as she finishes off the pizza. Steve hadn’t even thought of that. If he got the role he’d have to move to his home in LA full-time for at least four months and then he’d be join back and forth for a while afterwards for a while, then the press tours, and premiers. How could he not have thought of that?

“It’s not like we’re dating or anything. Who knows, if I get the role, by the time shoot starts I may not even remember who he is.” That’s a lie. Both of them know that. Even if he and Bucky don’t have an epic love story or even a mediocre love story, Steve isn’t the kind of guy to just forget someone with the snap of his fingers. Natasha pats his arm as she pushes herself off the couch to get something to drink. 

“You want a Vitamin Water?” Natasha asks.

“Dragon fruit, if I have any left.” Natasha comes back and hands Steve his dragon fruit drink. She sits down and puts her arm around Steve. She’s much smaller than him, but they manage. He rests his head on her shoulder and takes a sip of his drink. Natasha turns on the TV again and what do you know? Steel Magnolias is about to play again. 

* * *

At around 7, Steve’s phone starts going off. He’s in the bathroom so Natasha picks up for him, because she’s such a great friend. That, and because she also loves to make Steve’s life 10x harder. She has to really control herself when she sees the name on the screen.

“Steven Rogers’s phone, Natalie Rushman speaking, how may I assist you today?” 

“Hi, um, I’m, uh, can I speak to Steve?”

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Rogers is unable to come to the phone at this time. May I take a message?” 

“Yeah, I guess. Just tell him that Bucky called. And that if he can’t call before 9, than I can just call him tomorrow.” Natasha practically feeds off of the scared tone in Bucky’s voice. She pretends to write it down, making a big deal about trying to find a pencil when Steve comes out of his room and sees her with his phone. His face nearly goes red. 

“Natasha I swear to God I will kill you right here if you don’t hand over that phone right now!” He shouts at her as he rushes over to the couch. She flips over the couch’s back and starts running away. He really should be used to this by now. And in a way he is. But it’s still really annoying. He didn’t grow up with a little sister, but he sure as shit has one now. 

“Oh! Mr. Rogers! I didn’t expect you back so soon. This nice fellow here, Binky, wishes to talk to you.” They run around the living room and the kitchen. She’s about to make a break for his bedroom, but luckily he blocks her. He’s got her cornered now. 

“Natasha! Give me the fucking phone!” He begs of her as she crawls between his legs, escaping him. He grabs at her ankle and she bursts into laughter, not able to control it anymore. She drops the phone and bolts to his bedroom, knowing that she’s in trouble. Steve makes his way back to the couch and crashes onto it, out of breath. 

“Steve?” Bucky sounds so confused. Steve’s almost surprised that Bucky didn’t hang up. Steve probably would have hung up if whoever he was on the phone with pulled a stunt like he just had.

“Bucky, hey,” he breaths out, trying to catch his breath. He still has some of his Vitamin Water left so he downs that really fast. “Sorry about that. Natasha is a child and thinks it’s funny to potentially ruin my life!” Steve shouts towards his room. Natasha pokes her head out and sticks out her tongue. He throws a pillow at her. Apparently they’re teenagers again. No, not even teenagers. This is more like five year olds.

“Natasha? Romanov?” Bucky sounds in shock. Steve sometimes forget that Natasha is famous too. She never acts like she’s a Hollywood A-lister; not when she’s around Steve that is. Unless paparazzi are around of course. 

“Unfortunately.” 

“I was just talking to Natasha Romanov. My life is becoming so weird.” Steve laughs at that. Bucky’s star struck at someone like Natasha. And it makes sense. She is a pretty big celebrity. Her mother is a famous director, her father is a world renown costume designer, and now she’s a supermodel turned actress. Steve’s actually pretty lucky that they’re friends. He hates her sometimes, but he loves her all the time. 

“She’s not all that she likes to believe she is.”

“Hey!” Natasha shouts from behind the door.

“Anyway, enough about my soon to be former friend, how was your parent teacher meeting?”

“In a word…interesting. It seems that this parent has just about as much respect for me as her son.” Bucky lets out a slow breath. He sounds really annoyed. Steve wishes he could do something but he doesn’t know what to say. 

“Really? What the hell is wrong with people?” It’s the best he can think of. 

“I honestly don’t know,” Bucky bitterly laughs. “Look, I could really use a drink right about now, do you want to meet up somewhere?” 

“You usually drink this much on school nights?" He hopes it came off as playfully teasing and not judgmental. 

“Not typically, but tonight is Friday, so it’s not a school night. And I’ve had a really shitty day and I need a drink so it wouldn’t even matter if it was a school night. You in?” 

“When and where?” Bucky tells him the name of a bar that isn’t too far away from his apartment. They hang up and Steve starts to get ready. Steve opens the door to his bedroom, almost in an attack stance, thinking that Natasha is going to pounce on him. Instead, Natasha is laying on the bed, her phone stuck to her ear. She has a big smile on her face and Steve guesses that it’s Clint that she’s on the phone with. Steve takes the phone out of her hand. She looks at him with eyes that could melt through steel. He doesn’t care. 

“She’s going to have to call you back,” he says before he hangs up on the person. 

“You’re dead. I’m going to kill you.” She gets off the bed and walks towards him. He’s not scared. Well, actually he is a little, but not enough for him to lock himself in his bathroom. Again. 

“No you’re not,” he says, grabbing her by the shoulders. Keeping her at arms length. “You’re going to help me pick out an outfit for tonight. I’m getting drinks with Bucky.” That seems to get her off his back a little. 

“Where are you going?” She goes into his closet and starts throwing shirts on the floor. 

“45th Street Bar.” Steve catches a dark blue button up and holds it up to him in front of his mirror. He always thought he looked good in this shirt. 

“What? Me too. I’m meeting Clint there in half an hour.” Natasha comes out and takes his dark blue shirt away from him. She hands him a light blue shirt instead. She nods to herself like ‘ _yes this is the best decision I’ve ever made. I am so damn proud of this choice._ ’

“Then we can ride together because that’s when I’m meeting Bucky.” He looks at his reflection and agrees with Natasha’s choice. He starts to put the shirt on. 

“Can I meet Bucky?” He stops buttoning up the shirt and looks at Natasha to see if she’s being serious. She is, apparently. He finishes buttoning up his shirt. 

“Um, I mean I guess you can, but won’t you be busy with Clint?” Natasha comes over to him and fixes his collar. He swats her away but she hits him back. 

“Why don’t you want me to meet him, Steve?” She goes over to his dresser and picks out a pair of jeans for him. She throws them to him. She starts looking at his belts, holds a few up but goes against it in the end.

“It’s not what you think, Nat,” he says as he puts his pants on. He doesn’t really know what he means by that. But it feels like the right thing to say. “It’s just that he’s not used to celebrities and I don’t want him to be overwhelmed. You know?” 

“Sure, I get it. You’re just scared that he’ll like me better.” 

“That’s it, Natasha. You got me.” Really though, Steve values Natasha’s opinion too highly and he doesn’t want to waste her time if Bucky turns out to be nothing. He waited a month with Peggy to introduce the two of them. Some of Steve’s partners never get to meet Natasha. One boyfriend he had met Natasha before Steve had time to mentally prepare him and after that Steve never saw him again. 

“Whatever. I’ll stay away. But I was hoping you’d meet Clint.” Natasha goes back to the closet and grabs some clothes. She always keeps some clothes at Steve’s apartment because whenever she’s in New York, she ends up crashing at Steve’s more than staying in the hotel. She has her own section in his closet, two of her own drawers in his dresser, and the second sink in his bathroom is unofficially hers. Sometimes it’s almost as if the paparazzi’s speculations that they’re a real couple are true. But then Steve remembers that Natasha is the single most annoying person he knows and that they’ve played romantic leads opposite each other and there is absolutely nothing that could ever happen between them. It’s nice having her around though. The apartment is never boring with her in it. Hell, Steve’s life is never boring with her in it. It’s never been better either.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Bucky is sitting at a booth when Steve arrives. There is someone else there with him. Steve can’t see his face. All he can tell is that he has dirty blond hair and a hearing aid. Natasha walks over to the booth and Steve wants to stop her but soon realizes that the blond is Clint. Steve stops walking and watches as Natasha slides into the booth next to Clint, and offers her hand for Bucky. Bucky’s a little star struck but shakes out of it. He motions for Steve to come over and Natasha looks confused but then it dawns on her. Steve walks over and sits next to Bucky. He offers his hand to Clint and then signs his name. Clint perks a little at Steve’s knowledge of ASL. 

They have a conversation between them for a little bit. Clint asks Steve how he knows sign language. Steve tells him about how when he was younger he was partially deaf but had it corrected. Steve gives Clint the ‘big brother type’ spiel but instead of ending it with ‘hurt her and I’ll kill you’ he always ends it with ‘hurt her and I won't stop her from killing you’ Clint laughs and says he knows better than to think he could get away with hurting Natasha. 

“You know other people are here, right?” Natasha says to Steve and Clint. They apologize and go back to the land of the talking.

“Clint, you didn’t tell me that you’re date was with Natasha Romanov.” Bucky looks at Natasha who smiles like she just won. Won what? Steve wasn’t sure. All he knew was that she had won. 

“Well you didn’t tell me you fucked Steve Rogers. So we’re even.” Natasha snorts crudely, not even trying to hide the laughter. Steve turns red. “Oh shit, sorry, Steve.” 

“No, no, it’s fine. So, how do you two know each other?” There really isn’t a need to dwell on it. His personal exploits are usually depicted in tabloids all the time (inaccurately, but people still believe it so it doesn’t even matter that they’re wrong). What’s one more part of his personal life exposed to a stranger?  

“We’re roommates. We also teach together,” Bucky says, taking a big gulp of the beer he had in front of him. Natasha waves over a waiter and orders a scotch. Steve orders a beer. Any beer. Whatever they have. Just hurry. 

“I’m a history teacher. I also coach the archery team.” Clint, while he does talk, also signs everything he’s saying. Steve and him begin another side conversation about archery. Natasha interrupts them yet again. This time starting a side conversation of her own. One that she knows will get Steve’s attention. 

“So,” Natasha faces Bucky, “you’re the best Steve’s ever had, huh?” Steve kicks Natasha under the table. She kicks back. Steve’s the one who’s injured. He winces but doesn’t say anything. Bucky doesn’t seem embarrassed. He just laughs and shrugs.

“I don’t know, ask Steve.” They all look at Steve. For someone who’s put in the spotlight for a living, he sure hates being put in the spotlight. Where the hell is his beer? He clears his throat and makes incoherent nosies while he blushes. Everyone laughs. The beer comes after they’re done making fun of him. Thanks a lot. 

They get off that subject and start talking about regular adult topics such as their favorite comic book characters and the one thing they’d take on a deserted island. Clint’s trying to defend his choice of what he’d bring on the island (coffee) when Steve notices that there is a table next their booth with a group of girls that keep looking over and whispering and giggling. Bucky seems to notice it too. Natasha is too busy trying to explain to Clint that without coffee filters and a coffee pot his precious coffee would be disgusting. 

“Hey,” Bucky says, nudging Steve’s shoulder. “You wanna step outside for a second?” Bucky can obviously sense that Steve’s starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the fans peering at him like a animal in a cage. Steve nods and slides out of the booth. Clint stops mid sentence to ask where they’re going. 

“Going out for a smoke, Clint. We’ll be back,” Bucky says and signs. Steve hadn’t realized that they were going out for Bucky to smoke, but he goes along with it anyway. Natasha cocks her head to the side, asking Steve without words but he just gives her a slight wave to let her know that he’s fine. She shrugs and goes back to her conversation with Clint who is still convinced that he’d take coffee with him even though he’s allowed to take literally anything. He just really loves coffee. 

Outside, Bucky pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He offers one to Steve who declines. Bucky lights one and inhales a deep breath. When he exhales the smoke billows around him in a cloud, masking him for a second before it disappears into the wind. Steve hates smoking, but Bucky makes it almost look like an art form. They both lean against the brick wall, silently. 

“Does the whole fan thing still freak you out?” Bucky asks after a little while.

“Yeah. I mean sometimes. I guess it just depends.” Bucky throws his cigarette on the ground and stomps it out. He then offers Steve his hand. Steve smiles and takes it. It’s always been one of his favorite things, holding hands. It just comforts him. It doesn’t even matter who it is. But when it’s someone he actually _likes_ , it’s better. When he and Peggy broke up, Natasha came over to his new apartment and they sat on the furniture-less floor and she held his hand as he tried not to cry. She didn’t let go of his hand until he was ready. It took a while. And even sometimes when they go to parties to keep up the fake relationship exterior they hold hands. It’s nice, but it’s not the same. 

“So, are the drinks helping you forget your shitty meeting?” Steve says, changing the subject from him to Bucky. They went out for Bucky’s sake. Bucky lets go of Steve hand and turns to face him. 

“I forgotten all about it actually,” Bucky says with a slight laugh.

“How bad was it? Do you even want to talk about it?”  

“It wasn’t as bad as I made it sound. Honestly the kid is just a dick and his mother isn’t any better. They both just thought that I was the one blowing things out of proportions and so of course my boss, Ms. Hill, had to take their side because that’s just how it works. So now I’m on, like, probation I guess? I don’t really know. Ms. Hill said she’d be keeping an eye on me. It’s bullshit.” 

“That is bullshit. She’ll be keeping an eye on you? What the fuck does that even mean?” 

“I have no idea, honestly. But you know what? I don’t care anymore. It happened and now it’s over. Do you think your adoring fans are done ogling you? I kind of would like to get back to drinking.” Steve lets go of Bucky’s hand and puts his arm around him. Bucky seems to fit so perfectly.

“No. But we can go back in.” They are about to walk into the bar when they are blindsided, nearly literally. A bright flashing light goes off, blinding them for a second. Steve can’t believe that the paparazzi are here. Then he can’t believe that he can’t believe that the paparazzi showed up. But how’d they even know he was here? Then it clicks. The girls from the table. They probably called just so they could get to be in the tabloids with a quick quote having been an eyewitness. 

He tightens his grip on Bucky, trying to pull him through the throng of paparazzi. They’re too thick though. 

“Steve! Steve! Who is this? Where’s Natasha?” It’s all he can hear. They’re all shouting at them the same questions over and over again. Just a few more steps and they’ll be inside, safe. Bucky looks like he’s going to be sick. Steve puts his arm around him and they push through the last cameras into the bar. Natasha is waiting near the door and ushers them back to the booth. 

“When’d they show up?” 

“Just a few seconds ago,” Steve says as they slide back into the booth. “Buck, you okay?” Steve asks looking him over. 

“I’m fine. Just taken by surprise. I’m good, Steve. Promise.” Clint looks behind them to see the flashing lights and the horde of people trying to push their way in. Luckily, the bar that Bucky had picked is a bar that Steve and Nat frequent and the staff knows them and does their best to keep the paparazzi outside. 

“We can go, you know? I mean they’re going to stay out there until we leave anyway. We can go back to my place. I don’t have a lot of booze, but we can stop and get some.” Steve says, extending the invite to Natasha and Clint as well. 

“Why don’t we just go back to our place? It’s farther out, but we have plenty of alcohol. No stopping required,” Clint suggests. They all seem to agree so they get ready to leave. Steve offers Bucky his hand which Bucky takes gratefully. Natasha and Clint walk out before Steve and Bucky, Natasha leading the way. She doesn’t bother to smile at the cameras. There are moments when she is beyond putting up with the paparazzi and she just has to push ahead with a stone face. The guy’s keep shouting at her, wondering who Clint and Bucky are, where they were going, why she and Steve aren’t the one’s holding onto each other. Nat just grabs Clint’s hand and keeps pushing. Steve tries to shield Bucky the best he can. They eventually get to the street and luckily a cab comes pretty quickly. Natasha gets into the front, leaving Clint in the back with Steve and Bucky. Steve’s sure she regrets it as soon as she’s buckled in. She’s missing a perfect opportunity to ridicule the two of them. She can still ridicule them, sure, but Steve knows it won’t be as fun if she can’t see their reactions. She can turn around, but Steve knows she won’t.

“Where to?” The driver asks, ready to start the meter. 

“Do we have to like drive around to throw them off?” Clint asks, almost hopeful. Natasha shakes her head and tells Clint to just give the driver his address. Clint huffs, but gives the man the address. 

* * *

The apartment is small. It’s only one bedroom with a sleeper sofa in the living room/dining room/kitchen. The kitchen is a fridge, a dripping sink, a broken stove, and a hotplate; and the dining room is a plastic table with two chairs. Bucky apologizes before he even opens the door. He explains that the lease is until the end of the year and now that they have money saved up they already found another place and are moving on the second of January.

“Does it have vodka somewhere hidden in it?” Natasha asks. Clint nods his head and leads her tothe kitchen where he opens the cabinet under the sink. Natasha picks up a bottle of vodka, takes a swig of it and says, “it’s the best apartment in the whole world.” Bucky takes Steve’s coat and hangs it up on one of the hooks next to the door. He then takes Steve’s hand and leads him to the couch. Natasha pulls out her phone and scrolls through it before deciding on a song. She hands it to Clint who plugs it up to the speakers and turns it up almost all the way. Bucky tells Steve that their neighbors have told them multiple times that they hate them.

“But we don’t really care!” Clint laughs as Natasha hands him the bottle. The two of them jump and dance, passing the vodka back and forth. Bucky and Steve stay on the couch, watching their best friends look like idiots. 

After many efforts from Clint and Natasha, Steve and Bucky dance for a little bit. They all have a fair amount of vodka but then Steve starts getting a little dizzy so he and Bucky decide to just crash on the couch and talk. Steve curls up on the couch, his feet tucked under him. Bucky is on the other side of the couch in almost the same position. Their knees are still touching though. Neither of them mind. Steve asks Bucky about teaching and what he loves the most about it. Bucky says the look in the kids’ faces when they finally understand something that had been giving them trouble. Clint chimes in saying that that is a pretty great look. Bucky says that he doesn’t want to talk about teaching, he wants to hear about Steve’s career. Steve tells Bucky a few stories about different movie sets and the different cast members. Natasha chimes in on that saying that the best food she’s ever had was on set at the catering tent in between takes. Steve can confirm that. 

“Oh come on, you’ve got to have better stories than that! You’re Steve fucking Rogers, A-list movie star who took a random break from acting only to come back with a vengeance. Your stories are better than good food on set.” Steve can sense a question about his break coming up. When he and Peggy split, the magazines and tabloids all said the same thing: 'Captain America's Single Again!' Most of the articles did a good job at using the information that Sam had fed them. Peggy and Steve split amicably and would continue to be friends but have broken up due to conflicting schedules. Sam had tried to set Steve up with interviews on talk shows but Steve declined all of them. He just packed up and moved to New York, ready to give up acting. The magazines had theories about Steve's absence but they couldn't confirm anything. When Steve came back and did some press for Snowpiercer (his indie comeback) all the questions about his time away were ignored and redirected to the film. So not many people know what had happened to him. They just know that he left and came back with a vengeance. He can understand why Bucky would want to ask him about it. But he's not ready to divulge the information yet.

Natasha also knows where Bucky's question is about to go so she decides to step up and be the best friend that Steve knows and loves. 

“Oh, tell him about your time working with me! I’m a great conversation topic,” Nat says as she and Clint sway to a song that requires more than just swaying. They’re getting tired; Steve can tell. Bucky sits up a little more, waiting for the story. 

“On the first movie I met her on we were both in our early twenties. I had only been acting for four years and Nat had been in the game technically she was born so I was a fucking newbie. I remember I kept forgetting this one line, still forget actually, so she learned it for me and she would mouth it to me whenever I was in the middle of screwing up a take.Eventually I got it but it took forever.” He feels like he’s doing an interview and he hats interviews. He knows that dates have a little bit of a interview-y vibe, but this is more so than usual. He can understand though. Steve’s used to dating people who more or less share the same lifestyle as him. Bucky’s about as far as you can get, which is nice because everything Steve says or does is something made of magic and everything Bucky says or does is everything wonderful. But Steve can see where it might start to get a little stressful, on both parts.

“Oh god, Steve, give him something better than that. Tell him about our second movie. You know, the one that _I_ starred in and _you_ were the romantic interest.” Natasha hands the nearly empty bottle to Clint and sways her way over to the couch. She sits in-between them, halfway sitting on Steve’s lap and Bucky’s knee. Clint walks over to the liquor cabinet and grabs a bottle of Fireball. He starts to rummage through the other cabinets, keeping out of the conversation.

“At least I didn’t have to wear a dress that looked like like Betty Ross threw up all over it.” Natasha twists her position to where she is fully sitting on Steve’s lap. Bucky looks at the two of them but doesn’t say anything. This is something that happens to Steve on basically a daily basis so he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. Not a lot of people know that Natasha is basically a cat. She curls up in the most random places —  Steve's found her sleeping on his kitchen counter more than once  — and she loves to have her hair petted. She'll also steal Steve's food whether Steve's watching or not. Steve's convinced that she was a cat in a past life. And since Bucky still has the tabloid’s pictures of the two of them going on dates stuck in his mind it'll probably take a while for him to get used to Steve and Natasha's relationship.

“That’s rich coming from Captain America.” 

“My uniform fuels people’s fantasies. Yours fuels people’s nightmares!” Natasha snorts and nearly falls off of Steve as she laughs so hard. Steve catches her and pulls her back up. She throws her arms around his neck and seems to melt into his chest. She can’t stop laughing. 

“How long have you two known each other exactly?” Clint finally chimes in. He’s found a few shot glasses and sets everyone up a line of Fireball shots. Natasha allows herself to fall onto the floor and jumps up to run over to the shots. Clint and Natasha cheers before taking the shots. Clint ends up coughing so much he needs to get some water. Natasha ends up doing the rest of the shots.

“Ten years,” Steve says. Unknowing to even him, Steve moves a little closer to Bucky. Bucky moves as well. “I don’t know how they keep getting me to agree to work with her though.”

“Oh shut up. I’m a wonder to work with. You love me.” She says as she takes the last shot. 

“That I do.” 

“Ten years? Shit I don’t think I’ve known anyone that long. I’ve only known Bucky for, like, what? Four years?” 

“Something like that. We met during my second tour and that was in 2010, so yeah, four years.” 

“You were in the military?” Steve asks. Bucky and Steve have somehow managed to move even closer now that Natasha has moved. 

“Yeah, I joined up to help pay for college. I didn’t go overseas until 2008 though. Stayed until 2011.”

“And Clint? You were in the military too?” Steve remembers Nat saying something about him being ex-military. 

“How you think I lost my hearing? I was a bomb tech. One mission didn’t go so right. Shit happens,” he says shrugging before he takes another sip of water.

“That’s how we met. We were both in the infirmary. I almost lost my arm, but they patched me up alright.” Bucky lifts up his sleeve to reveal a nasty scar on his left shoulder. Steve hadn’t noticed that last night. He was a little preoccupied. 

“Can we not talk about this anymore?” Clint asks. “I had a great buzz going and now I’m thinking about bad shit. Come on, lets dance!” He grabs Natasha’s hand and they go back to the little space that they had carved out for dancing. Steve reaches out his hand for Bucky to take and they go and dance for a little bit more.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Natasha and Clint finally settle down after most of the alcohol in the apartment is gone. Clint ends up sitting on the floor in front of the couch and Natasha winds up staying in the kitchen, sitting on the counter. She finds a box of Cocoa Puffs and takes a handful. Bucky tells her that they do have bowls and milk but she seems perfectly fine just eating it out of the box. Steve’s not sure why she only has one shoe on or where her other shoe is. They all start talking about this and that with no filter due to all the alcohol. 

Clint talks about his time in the army a little bit but not for long. He talks about how exhilarating defusing bombs can be but how stressful it is. He explains about how hard it was for him to get back into the swing of things once he got out. What brought him back to reality was going to school. He seems to get lost in thought for a little bit but snaps out of it soon enough. Steve asks him if he always wanted to go into the military to which he laughs. 

“I wanted to be a circus performer. Well, actually, I _was_ a circus performer. But I always thought that’s all I’d ever be.” He shrugs it off. 

“You were a circus performer?” Steve asks. He seems to be the only one who thinks that’s interesting. Natasha has moved on from the Cocoa Puffs to a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She nods her head at Steve like ‘ _yeah, everyone knows that_ ’ as she searches for a spoon. Bucky points to the right drawer and she thanks him by saluting him with her newly acquired spoon.  

“Yeah. Mostly odd jobs at first but then I was picked up by a sharpshooter who trained me. It was really cool because he told me I was a natural and had real talent. Then he turned out to be a criminal. Tried to get outta that as fast as I could, stumbled along the way, but ended up at the recruitment office the day I turned 18. At first I thought I’d want to be a sniper, seeing that I was an excellent marksmen, but I didn’t really have the mentality for it. Not really sure how I ended up becoming a bomb tech, but I did and I’m glad.” Steve can’t believe that he’s the only one impressed by this. But then again, Bucky’s known Clint for a while and Natasha isn’t easily impressed. She might have also known this about Clint.

“How long were you in the military?” Steve can tell Clint’s not too fond of talking about his military career but Clint seems a little more relaxed now so he thinks he’ll give it a shot. 

“Um, about six years, I think. For me, since I had no one to come back for I wasn’t counting the days ’til I got back, ya know? I just woke up, did my job, hung out with my team, went to bed, repeated. I guess I could have been waiting to see my brother again, but me and him don’t really get along. Haven't seen him since…” Clint can’t remember with all the alcohol sloshing around in his head. Steve’s surprised he’s gotten this far honestly.

“Barney came by like a year ago Clint. He stole my watch, remember? You were supposed to pay me back for that.” 

“I did, didn't I?” Clint scratches his head, trying to think back. Bucky pats his head from where he still sits on the floor in front of him.

“Worth a shot,” Bucky whispers to Steve. Steve laughs, hitting Bucky in the shoulder. 

“What about you, Natasha?” Bucky looks back at Nat who is still sitting on the counter. She has a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. She takes a long time to answer Bucky.  

She’s not that prone to opening up. But she’s tipsy (drunk) and her guard is a little down. She doesn’t talk much about her past but she does tell a story about one of her first times on a set of a film. It was on the set of A League of Their Own where her father was one of the head costume designers. He took her to the set and she got to meet Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna. Tom Hanks pulled a quarter out of her ear and Madonna sung Bohemian Rhapsody with her. Her mother came and picked her up after she had three hours on set. She hid because she didn't want to leave and it took everyone an hour to find her. They ended up finding her in Geena Davis’s trailer playing checkers with her. No one thought to look there because they didn’t think she would go in there. 

“You know Tom Hanks?” Bucky asks, so amazed that he knows someone who knows Tom Hanks. 

“I mean, I met him and if he’s ever at award shows I make sure to stop at his table to say ‘hi’ but I’m not friends with him.”

“Do you know Tom Hanks?” Bucky asks Steve. 

“I’ve met him a few times. We presented an award together a few years back. It was really cool. He’s wonderful.” 

“What are award shows like? They seem so cool,” Clint says. He wonders into the kitchen and grabs the Cocoa Puff box that Natasha is still sort of nibbling on. She looks at him but then goes back to her ice cream. He comes back to his spot back on the floor and offers his cereal to Bucky and Steve. Bucky takes a handful; Steve declines. 

“They’re pretty cool. The tables are usually based on movie/tv so you usually like your table mates. The booze are good. The actual awards aren’t that special. Presenting is usually awkward because the jokes they have you say are so forced sounding but it’s not too bad.” 

“I’ve always wanted to go to an award show. Just to see everything.” Bucky admits. He’s not on the opposite side of the couch, but he’s not sitting too close to Steve. Their knees are touching. Steve looks over at him and tries to picture him at an award show. On the red carpet in a suit with his hair slicked back. Smiling and waving at the cameras. His arm linked with Steve’s as Steve guides him down the red carpet. Steve likes the idea. 

“Award season is just around the corner,” Natasha comments from the kitchen. She’s put the ice cream up and is now just drinking some water. Steve knows what Nat means by that comment but he choses to ignore her. 

“What else?” Steve asks Bucky. Bucky looks at him confused. “What else have you always wanted to do?” This question sets off a round of different questions that leads to a lot of background information being exposed. 

Bucky’s also always wanted to go to Russia to which Natasha says she still has family there and that she goes almost every other summer and she’d take Bucky one of her trips if he wanted. The look in Bucky’s eyes reminded Steve of a little kid being presented a new toy. After that Steve asks Bucky about his past. He finds out that Bucky’s an army brat and his favorite place to live was Hawaii because he got to learn how to surf; he’s allergic to cats and he found that out because his little sister got a pet cat for her fifth birthday and it liked to curl up on Bucky’s lap and he started to sneeze so badly that he’d almost black out from it; his favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast but only because his little sister made him watch it over and over again and he can quote it word for word —also it’s just a really great movie; he wants to eventually move to the suburbs and have three dogs (a Dalmatian, a Grey Hound, and a Pug) named Chuck, Zippy, and Helen respectively; and he’s afraid of heights.

“So? What about you?” Bucky asks. He and Steve are closer now. Steve’s arm is around Bucky and Bucky is neatly tucked into Steve’s side. Bucky looks up at Steve and Steve unfolds his past.

Bucky discovers that Steve grew up in New York; he’s surprisingly a Boston Red Sox Fan — his mother’s from Boston; his favorite movie is a tie between Toy Story and Back to The Future because Toy Story is the first movie he took his very first date to and Back to The Future is the first movie he went to see in the theater;his best friend (beside Natasha) is his dog that he’s had since he was nineteen who lives with his mom; and he’s afraid of spiders. 

Natasha laughs at Steve, remembering the time on the set of Captain America that she and Peggy put a fake spider in his trailer and the entire cast and crew could hear his scream. They all found Steve standing on a chair, screaming and pointing at the spider. Everyone thought that he was dying which he claims to have been because he swears that he saw the so called “fake” spider move. Clint and Bucky laugh, picturing Captain America cowering at a spider. Natasha confirms that witnessing Captain America nearly pissing his pants over a fake spider is indeed something that needed to be recorded. And luckily, it was. Before they left the trailer, Peggy had made sure to hide a camera in there. Natasha grabs her phone out and pulls up the video. Bucky makes Nat play it three times before Steve takes her phone away. Bucky and Natasha are crying with laughter. 

“Oh yeah, you think that’s funny? I’d like to see you face your greatest fear.” Clint perks up and Steve can tell he’s about to get a great story. Bucky looks at Clint with pleading eyes, begging him not to tell but Clint’s face says it all. 

Clint tells them a story about Bucky trying to overcome his fear of heights by going up in a hot air balloon. The school took a field trip to the zoo and at this particular zoo they had a tethered hot air balloon. All of Bucky’s kids knew about his fear so naturally they all dared him to ride in the balloon. Clint was waiting for Bucky to just laugh and ignore them, but instead he said ‘ _fuck it_ ’ and got in the line. Clint nearly pissed his pants he was so excited to see this disaster in motion. Even though he didn’t feel like paying twelve dollars to be in a balloon with a bunch of other people for ten minutes, he was would be willing to pay well over $1000 just to see Bucky’s face. 

“I mean, you were kind of asking for that. You went up there on your own.” Steve says. At this point in the night, Steve and Bucky are no longer on opposite sides of the couch. Bucky’s head is laying in Steve’s lap, with Steve absentmindedly playing with his hair. Bucky’s eyes are closed but he opens them to look up at Steve whenever he talks. 

“He turned green. Not in the way that people just say; he was literally green. It was almost like a cartoon moment in real life. Hands down one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed.”

“I was trying to confront my fear. Conquer it, you know?”

“Yeah, and it bit you in the ass.” Bucky shrugs and closes his eyes again to let Steve continue to play with his hair.

“And you got no room to talk, Clint,” Bucky says, sitting up. “You’re the dumbass who’s afraid of horses. Like who the hell is afraid of horses?” 

“Dude, you know my deal with those bastards. Dead eyed, soulless little fucks.” Steve can’t help but laugh at Clint. 

“Is there a story behind that?” Natasha asks. Finally, Steve doesn’t feel out of the loop. He and Natasha are expecting an epic story about his times in the circus. Or at least Steve is and from the look on Nat’s face, he suspects she is too. Working at a circus Clint probably encountered all sorts of animals. There was no telling what could have happened to him involving a horse. 

“When I was little, before I joined circus, my mother took me and my brother to the county fair. I got a giant pretzel, like the size of my head. It was awesome. As we were walking, we stopped by the petting zoo. Barney ran over to the ponies and asked our mom if we could ride them. We had just enough to pay for the pony rides but I refused to give up my pretzel. Well, as I was waiting for the dude running the pony rides to come over and help us, one of the damn things took my pretzel. Bit my hand too. Nearly broke two fingers.” Clint says, looking at his hand in remembrance of his stole pretzel. “Asshole,” he adds in a whisper. Everyone stays quiet for no more than three seconds before they all burst out in laughter. Clint pouts, mumbling about how the horse might have cost him his archery career. 

“Shit, it’s nearly two in the morning,” Steve comments as he checks his phone. He’s missed a call from Sam. He’ll call him later. 

“So?” Bucky says. “You got to be up early tomorrow? Or today?” He asks both Steve and Natasha. He knows that he and Clint don’t have to do anything. Grade some papers, but they can do that later.

“No,” both Steve and Nat say. 

“So then, stay.”

“Lets watch a movie,” Clint suggests.

It takes a little while to figure out what to watch. They pull up Netflix but can’t seem to agree on anything. Finally Clint laughs, heads into the bedroom, and comes out with the Beauty and the Beast DVD. Nat and Steve clap at the choice and Bucky just groans. Natasha hops off the counter and sits on the couch. She sits at the end of the couch with Bucky’s feet in her lap and Clint sitting between her legs. He leans his head back and she pets his hair. As soon as the movie starts Bucky can be heard whispering the exact lines to himself. Clint reaches up and smacks Bucky’s feet, telling him to shut up and just watch the movie.

If Steve weren’t a part of this group, he would have never thought they were basically strangers to each other. It doesn’t feel like this is the first time that they’ve all hung out together. This just feels so natural. Steve can’t help the smile that spreads across his face. Natasha is the only one who sees it. She smiles back, knowing exactly what he’s thinking. She’s thinking the same thing.

For the longest time it’s only been Steve and Natasha. Before Steve and Peggy broke up, Peggy was a great addition to the group. Peggy could keep up with the both of them, she never got jealous of Steve and Natasha’s relationship, and she kept them both grounded when they started to get a little too full of themselves. And they had Sam during Steve’s break when Sam took the time off too; then Sam had to go back to work. He visits and they go out to dinner or they go to a fancy party usually hosted by Tony Stark or at least at Stark Tower. But for the most part it’s just Steve and Natasha. It’s hard for them to have other people in their group. They love each other and that’ll never change and that freaks people out for some reason. But it’s nice to have other people too. 

“I’m hungry,” Natasha states after the movie. It’s nearly 3:30 in the morning by now. Steve’s only a little tired. She kicks Bucky’s feet off of her lap and maneuvers around Clint, who’s managed to fall asleep in the position he’s been on the floor for the past two hours. She grabs her coat, finds her shoes, and waits at the door for someone, doesn’t matter who, to join her. Steve knows what to do, but he doesn’t feel like getting up. He looks down at Clint who, luckily, gets the message. He stretches and yawns before jumping up and going over to grab his coat as well.

“Where do you want to go?” He asks Nat in the middle of a yawn. 

“There’s a 24-hour Thai place that has really good peanut chicken that’s only about three blocks away.” Steve agrees and tells Nat to get some curry puffs and pork dumplings. She waves her hand dismissively because he acts as if she doesn’t know what to do. She and Clint leave after Bucky asks them to get him coconut shrimp and some spring rolls. 

“I’m a little disappointed that you lied to me,” Steve finally confesses once Clint and Natasha are gone. He’s been sitting on this since they got to the apartment. 

“I lied to you? When?” Bucky sits up a little, worried.  

“You said you had a poster of me on your wall. I don’t see a poster.” Bucky doesn’t say anything, just gets off the couch and pulls Steve with him. They walk into the bedroom where Bucky points to the wall and sure enough a Captain America poster is hanging up. He folds his arms over his chest, proud to have proved Steve wrong. 

“Told you,” Bucky says smugly. 

“So?” Steve says, walking farther into the room. He sits on the bed, looking around. Bucky has a Captain America poster, a Karate Kid poster, a cheesy motivational poster with a picture of cat hanging onto a branch of a tree telling him to ‘hang in there’, and a signed The Mary Janes poster that showed that they were playing at Shield, the club that Bucky and Steve met in. “This is your room?” Bucky follows him. He hesitates to sit next to Steve. Steve grabs his hand and pulls him down. Steve lays down, his arms folder behind his head. Bucky stays sitting up, looking around his room.

“Yeah, Clint took the sleeper sofa. Or well he lost the coin toss, but he didn’t put up a fight or anything.” He looks around a little more before he finally settles down and lays next to Steve. 

“I like your other posters,” Steve says, pointing at the one with the cat. “The cat one is very inspirational.” He turns to face Bucky who turns to face Steve. 

“A class of mine gave it to me at the end of the year a few years ago. I kept telling them to ‘hang in there’ whenever they would come crying to me with their shitty grades. It became a running gag so they gave that to me. If you turn it over all of their signatures are on it.” Steve pulls back a little because he knows where this is headed and he wants to know more about Bucky. He really, honestly wants to find out more about him and it’s hard to do that with Bucky’s lips so pink and so close to his face. 

“Speaking of signatures,” Steve sits up figuring it the best move. Bucky follows. “Is there a story as to how you got a signed poster by The Mary Janes?” 

“They were playing at Shield while I was working there and I got to meet them.” Bucky shrugs like meeting one of the best bands to ever grace the world is nothing. 

“You worked at Shield?”

“Yeah. Did you just think it was normal for a stranger to know where they can take a hookup?” 

“I did think it was a little strange but I was a little more preoccupied with other things.” Bucky blushes a little, remembering last night in great detail. 

“Well I did work at Shield for like three months before I found the job I have now. I was a bar tender.” 

“And now you go back there just to blow off steam?” 

“Yeah, I get in for free and since I know most of the bar tenders there still I usually get free drinks. And I still know how to get to the back rooms for quick hookups.” Bucky says, looking at Steve with a quick smirk and an even quicker wink. 

“You make me sound cheap.” Steve says, pretending to sound offended. Bucky knocks into his shoulder.

“It was a little cheap at first, you gotta admit.” It was. Steve wasn’t above thinking it wasn’t. And if Bucky hadn’t turned out so nice and funny and seemingly perfect, their hookup would have ended at that. Instead, Bucky turned out to be someone that Steve wanted to know, someone that Steve could stay in with and dance around the living room, someone who’s hand Steve wanted to hold. 

“It got better though. Right?” Steve has to ask. Sometimes being so self-conscious can be a hassle. Bucky puts his arm around Steve and pulls him closer to him. 

“Definitely.” 

 


End file.
